Burning trends of the Lower Don floodplain landscapes according to remote sensing data

The article presents the results of the analysis of the natural fire regime in the Don floodplain according to various satellite monitoring information products based on MODIS data with a spatial resolution of 250-1000 m and Landsat resolution of 30 m. and in the steppe and desert zones. At the same time, insufficient attention is paid to the problem of fires in wetlands in Russia. The aim of the research was to determine the trends in the dynamics of fire in the landscapes of the Lower Don floodplain based on the detection data of active burning FIRMS and burnt areas GABAM, FireCCI51 and MCD64A1. The indicated raster data were converted into vector format, after which the burnt areas were obtained both for the entire floodplain and for individual sections - loans. It is established that for the period of research 2001-2020. burnt according to various estimates from 36 to 83% of the territory. There are no significant flammability trends in most of the study area. Only in the Don Delta an increase was noted, and on the Kochetovsky, Salsky and Sukho-Kumshaksky loans, a significant decrease in fire is observed. None of the fire detection information products used can fully cover all burnt areas, either due to gaps or false positives and artifacts. The accuracy of determining the severity can be improved by expert interpretation of satellite images of high spatial resolution. This is a laborious and costly process. The results obtained in the course of this study will form the basis of subsequent work on the visual interpretation of satellite data.